Friday, November 29, 2013

November's challenge painting treated us to the bounty of the harvest season. The juicy fruit, the celebration of wine, the welcoming at the table. This reminds me of good food shared with family and friends. And our various challenge pieces are a bountiful harvest as well! We are so delighted that you chose to share them with us.

Check out the beautiful art jewelry created from the theme.

Your turn! Click the InLinz Link-up below to add your blog post
to the hop! And thanks for all you do to make the Art Bead Scene a place
for celebrating art and beads! We are thankful for each of you!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Art Bead Scene team is so thankful for our readers! Today as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S. we want to say a huge and heart-felt thank you for stopping by, leaving comments and participating in our monthly challenge. We are glad you are here!

Here is a round up of Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales that we thought you'd want to know about!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Miss Karin must have an enviable stash of art beads for her to pull so many wondrous beads together for this challenge! The pendant from Scorched Earth is the perfect embodiment of that tippy bottle, the Grey Bird Studios ceramic tablet shapes are ripe and juicy with color, the green glass beads from Studio Juls bring in the bright backdrop and the sweet little toggle by Mary Harding makes me think of the trees dripping with fruit. A beautiful assortment of art beads playing so harmoniously together in the capable hands of Miss Karin!

Directions:
1. String the headpin through the leaf toggle pair, string the spacer bead and a create a wrapped loop. Set aside.
2. Double the 24" waxed linen, string through the brass hammered ring, wrap three times around the ring on with both ends of the linen, tie a knot with both strands of linen.
3. String a wood bead through one strand, tie a knot at the top of the bead with both strands of linen. Repeat two more times.
4. String the polymer clay lentil through both stands of linen, tie a knot. Repeat with ceramic lentil and nest bead.
5. Repeat step 3.
6. Tie 3 knots around the clasp, add a dab of beader's glue to secure last knot, trim off excess linen.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Evening all! At least, it's evening here in the UK - probably afternoon or even morning where some of you ABS-ers are! It's been a busy, busy week for me so I'm just going to leap straight into some festive beady finds. I seem to have gone with a white, red and green theme this week!

Next week is DECEMBER, can you believe……the month when Winter officially starts (although it feels like it already has for many of us!). So let's have a month of snow-themed beads. White, clear, silver, gold, sparkly…..glass, polymer, clay, bronze, pewter, copper……I can't wait to see your finds!

Friday, November 22, 2013

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

As we get closer to the holidays it's time to start thinking about gifts. I always make ornaments every year. I can't seem to get out of it and everyone expects one every year. Here is a decorative hook that can be used to hang many things. Using copper looks great and it's inexpensive.

Start with 4" piece of 18 gauge copper wire. I picked a spool up at Ace Hardware. Don't try to straighten the wire too you will put kinks in the wire that you can't get out.

With the curve of the wire facing away from you, use your round nose pliers to make a small loop at the end of the wire. Always roll your wire away from your body.

Using the handle of a large paintbrush, about 1/2" up the loop end of the wire bend the wire over handle. Do this by smoothing the wire as you bend it. Bring the wire slightly under the handle and begin curving the other end to form an "S".

Begin making the coil on the end by using the large end of your round nose pliers to create an open loop.

Complete the coil by rolling it upwards towards the top of the hook with your fingers.

I like my hooks hammered. Use a hammer and a striking plate to hammer the small loop and coil.

Completed Hook.

Combining your hook and ornament.

Cut 10" of sheer ribbon. I get mine at Michaels. To give the ornament and ribbon a nice finished look and to keep the ribbon from doing the annoying split, I slide a 10mm glass donut over the ribbon. Fire Mountain Gems has a great selection. The clear glass donuts go best with all ornaments.

Don't forget to add your artist tag so everyone knows they have a hand crafted item by you. This one is 1" x 1"

Tie the ribbon onto the bottom of the hook using an overhand knot. This keeps your ornament and hook together and secure.

You have a beautiful finished product hanging from a handmade copper hook. Colored wire works wonderful also. Just don't hammer it. 18 gauge wire will hold most ornaments. The heftier the ornament the thicker your wire needs to be.